It was a bright, sunshiny day and Margie was very happy. It was her birthday. She was seven years old. That afternoon, Margie's mother gave her a party. All of her friends were there. They played games, and ate lots of cake and ice cream. Margie blew out all of the candles on her cake in one blow. Her friends cheered and urged her to open her presents. She got a bracelet, a new blouse, a baby doll, and a book of adventure stories. But her favorite gift was a friendship ring from her best friend, Helen. It was silver and had a red heart in its center. Margie told Helen that it was the best present she had ever received, and she promised she would wear it everywhere.

The next day a beautiful woman came to Margie's school to talk to the students about hungry children. The beautiful woman was a famous movie actress who had given a year of her life to traveling as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. (Do you know what UNICEF is?) She told them about all of the hungry children she had visited in refugee camps around the world. (Do you know what a refugee camp is? Who lives in a refugee camp?)

In Cambodia she had met a hungry boy who told her, "Sometimes I cry, but only when it rains, so the other children will not see." Then she said, "You and I can help wipe away his tears."

She told about several refugee camps in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and a little country called Djibouti, all on the Horn of Africa. "In one of the refugee camps water is so scarce," she said, "that the woman dig in brown mud, and that's what they drink." She told the children that millions of people would soon die in these refugee camps unless the world did something to help them.

In another refugee camp she met a little girl who owned nothing in life but a tiny ring with a red glass stone in it. The little girl had taken off her ring and given it to her to give to some child who needed it more.

When the beautiful woman had finished speaking, all of the students in Margie's school crowded around her to thank her and to ask for her autograph. When it was Margie's turn she stepped up to her and took off the silver ring with the red heart in its center, gave it to the beautiful woman, and said, "When you meet a little girl in one of those refugee camps who needs a ring, please give this to her."

Just then the teacher came up and said, "Oh, no, Margie, you shouldn't give your ring. What would your parents say?" But the beautiful woman said, "Let her give what she can. She may not always have so much to give or the heart to give it."

Author's Note: This story was inspired by an article about actress Liv Ullman, which appeared in "The Wisconsin State Journal," Section 7, page 2, May 3, 1981.